fantasy basketball

Even though we haven’t even reached the All-Star break just yet, it is that time of year to start looking towards the head-to-head fantasy basketball playoffs. At this point you probably fall into one of four groups:

Playoffs? Playoffs?

If Paul Millsap comes back soon and Myles Turner turns things around then I have a chance.

I just set my lineup for the next month, I will check back in…wait, Cousins is out for the year!?

Wake me in mid-March.

It is never wise to get too comfortable in fantasy basketball, because just like we saw with the DeMarcus Cousins, injury can change things in a hurry. So, in addition to monitoring your waiver wire and reading Razzball on a daily basis, it is wise to start looking at the make-up of your team and how many games your players are expected to have each week during the fantasy playoffs.

In roto leagues, the only games you need to keep an eye on are your maximum games played at each position. In head-to-head leagues, however, knowing the volume of games each player will have each week is vital, especially in the playoffs. So let’s put on our fantasy basketball beer goggles and look to see if your team is one you want to take home when the bar closes at the beginning of April.

[Playoff schedules below are based on Yahoo default public league settings, going from Week 21-23. Week 21 begins March 12th. Week 22 begins March 19th. Week 23 begins March 26th and ends on April 1st.]

Sleepers. How you win your leagues. I love sleepers; it’s my favorite part of any fantasy forecasting where you identify the diamonds in the rough. A big reason I love sleepers is they are the guys that can end up on a lot of your teams at a draft day value discounted where you know you can beat your draft to them.

So that takes me to DeMar DeRozan, a guy I wasn’t going to write my first sleeper post on at first, but amidst my ranking at 67 in my Way Too Early Rankings, I decided to dig deeper and try to convince Razzballers why they should spend a higher price on DeRozan than other rankings would suggest:

Funny thing about sleepers: as soon as they’re recognized by even a small group, they can’t be sleepers anymore. It never fails. After scratching and clawing to get someone, anyone, to buy into my sleeper theories about a player, I’m always regretful for having done so the second I prove to be successful.

Fantasy-wise, defensive stoppers don’t get much respect. Chances are if you’re known for defense, it’s because you’re not known for offense. There may be a spot for you in a real team’s rotation, but not my fantasy team. While offensive stats make up six-and-a-half categories in most leagues (we’re splitting rebounds in half – I don’t truly know where rebounds should go.

There were three guards I remember teasing in the comment sections of Razzball’s preseason posts back in September/October. The first was Mike Conley, the second was Kyle Lowry and Jared Dudley was third. Why? Are you asking me why I taunted these three or why I remember it?

I suppose I could be a tad blinded by Jeff Teague‘s second-round production in these playoffs, but it’s not as if the 16/2.5/4, with 1.5 steals he’s averaged after four postseason games against the Bulls is somehow disconnected from his future.

With apologies to Señior Ramon, the only way we’re going to properly pump Ramon Sessions is to properly dump Baron Davis. It has to be this way. It’s a law of nature. Like women always hanging their handbags at the bend of their elbow despite having two free hands.

When people reflect on the 2010-11 playoffs, they’ll think any number of the following thoughts: 1) Bill Simmons probably went nuts jibbering on about Rudy Gay further proving his “Ewing Theory” that sometimes good players make a team worse. 2) The Heat can turn themselves up to 11, they just haven’t had a reason to yet.

By now the idea of the mildly attractive girl who hangs out with female friends that appear to have done some hard drinking in the Old West just to make herself appear more attractive by comparison is a cliche so overused that it’s no longer true.